National Sleep Foundation

Navigation

Chapter 1: Normal Sleep

Total Loss of Sleep

We need sleep to live.101

Current hypotheses about sleep’s role and function are often based on observing the negative effects of sleep deprivation in humans and animals. When rats are totally deprived of sleep, they die within two to three weeks. They also die if they are deprived of all rapid eye movement (REM) sleep but allowed some non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, although this takes longer — about six weeks.102The cause of death is still in dispute.103

After one sleepless night, the effects of sleep loss may be masked by increases in physical and/or mental stimulation. In acute emergencies, a surge of adrenaline can compensate for the lack of sleep. After two or three nights of total sleep deprivation, microsleeps of a few seconds may intrude into wakefulness, causing daytime performance to deteriorate, even if the person is highly motivated to stay awake.110 (Microsleeps are brief sleep episodes that can last for a fraction of a second up to 30 seconds.)

As sleep deprivation continues, microsleeps become longer and more frequent. After about 10 days of total sleep deprivation, electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings can no longer distinguish whether the individual is awake or asleep, even when performing tasks associated with wakefulness, like walking.111